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Are we moving too fast?
Posted by Lagnajit Pradhan
on
3:18 AM
Generation gap, impact of western culture, youth vs. experienced; all these topics have lost their shine after being discussed time & again in different forums. I have always supported the western culture, youthful attitude & strongly believe that the generation gap is a must for the inclusive growth of the society.
But something happened today which made me rethink. “Are we moving too fast?” is what I thought at once. I was having a phone chat with a 9 year old cousin of mine studying in 4th std in Delhi Public School in the capital city of Odisha. She was elated to know about my placement & gave me a list of things that I had to get her next time I fly to her place. The list did not have the usual things I thought it should have had, but it had a lot of weird things that left my eyes wide open.
Suddenly she wanted to know whether I had a girlfriend or not. I was so stunned that I could not utter a single word for a minute. Then she repeated her question. I said a lot of them & mentioned a few random names also as if I did not get her question. She stopped me in-between & asked me if I was crazy.
“Bhai, I did not mean girls who are your friends, I meant like real girlfriends, you know” was the next thing she said. Without wasting one more second, I asked her to hand over the phone to my aunty.
After hanging up, it stimulated the very active & smart cells of my brain to have a serious consideration. I mean she is not even a teenager. Forget teen age she has not even touched the double figure.
Every photo of my great grandparents has the whole family. There is none having my great grandfather & great grandmother only. I never cracked a silly marriage joke involving my grandparents. My father still feels uneasy asking my mother for a movie or a drive in front of me. I being a messed up little monster, surpassed everything, still go red in the face while talking about my girl.
But getting to know what the 8, 9 years of my country talk about these days, I would unquestionably say,
“We are indeed moving too fast.”
